We're getting married! Here's our story (the cliffsnotes version)

How we met:
Andrew and I met online. Yep, that’s right. Online. We met on a website called okcupid. I signed up one Friday night when I was home alone and bored. The next morning I had a message from a guy with a great smile with a subject line that read “Please correct my grammar.” The message itself was endearing. This guy had read my profile and was trying to make a genuine conversation. Not the standard “hey u r cute wanna chat?” And let’s be honest, I’m an English teacher. Those messages always just got deleted. But here was a guy with this amazing smile and he could write full sentences! I read his profile and was impressed for lots of reasons—he liked cats, was working on his second masters degree, liked to dance, and everything he wrote about himself was clever and intelligent. We messaged back and forth, and I immediately appreciated his sense of humor. It didn’t take long for us to decide to meet. Of course, I wanted to take the safe way out. I told him I was planning to go to my favorite coffee shop that afternoon to grade papers, and that if he had work to do he should join me. I noticed him immediately when he walked it. He had tight jeans, and a t-shirt layered underneath a plaid button up. He was cuter than I could have imagined. And he walked up and smiled at me, held his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Andrew.” I knew immediately that this was the man I was going to marry.

How we got engaged:
We were celebrating New Year's Eve together at our apartment. When the clock struck midnight, we kissed and toasted some champagne. The television was playing Sinatra's "New York, New York" and Andrew asked me if I wanted to dance (we were in the process of moving into our new home, and the place was sans furniture). I thought this was romantic and fun, so I said of course. Andrew said "help me up" and I did. But Andrew didn't stand to dance. Instead, he only rose to one knee. It took me a moment to realize that he was proposing. He was holding a little block box open with the most perfect ring I’d ever seen. I was completely speechless, full of tears. When I caught my breath, he said “so will ya?” “You have to ask it right, honey” I told him, laughing. He tried again, this time with “Would you be my wife?”
And now here we are! Planning our wedding and the rest of our lives together.

Challenge!

I am a self-proclaimed workaholic. I teach my assigned classes, I am the faculty sponsor for an honor society, and I volunteer for 100 other things to keep me busy. On top of that, I am planning my wedding (4 months to go!) I'm very happy-- truly. But here's what's missing: my creativity. I haven't written in months. My goal since college, maybe before, has been to write a novel. But by the time I grade my papers, plan my lessons, catch up on emails, and research prices for wedding favors, there's no way I'm looking at my computer voluntarily. All I want to do when the day is done is watch TV.

And when I do sit down to try to write, I realize that my mind is blank. It is blank because I haven't been writing, and I'm out of practice. One of the first things I learned in my creative writing classes was to write every day-- something, anything, just get thoughts on paper.

So this is what I'm challenging myself to do. I'm going to give myself 10 minutes a day to write. And I don't mean emails, assignments, or lesson plans. I mean either blogs or pages of a novel. Wish me luck! And hold me to it!

Vampires and Werewolves

This week I finished reading New Moon, the second of the Twilight Series. Stephanie Meyer certainly does know how to leave a reader wanting more. But before I continue the series, I’ve decided to backtrack to a classic: Dracula. I’ve been jolted by this switch though- going from reading a novel intended for young teenagers to one that is an essential part of the literary canon. I’m only 20 pages in at this point.


There really is something to all of this- society’s fascination with a frightening legend. One of the biggest appeals with Twilight (at least for me) is the modification of myths. Vampires and werewolves can never become boring if the ideas are so malleable.


I will say this: I’m much more interested in the vampires than the werewolves. I suppose every woman is going to have a thing for Edward Cullen.

Writing Galleries

I'm currently working on a project through NCTE (The National Council of Teachers of English). This project will offer everyone a chance to have their writing published in on online format under the National Gallery of Writing.

Members of the Wilmington, NC community may submit any form of writing under 3500 words to The Wilmington, North Carolina Gallery of Writing. For more information, or to submit your writing, visit http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/87461

Starting late next week, any one in any area may submit their writing to Writing in an Online Environment. This gallery will be publishing blogs, tweets, essays, videos, and other projects.

*Note: you may only submit one piece of writing total. This means that you may not submit to more than one gallery.

For more information on the National Gallery, visit: http://www.galleryofwriting.org/

Our *Pretend* Vacation

Last weekend, I decided that Andrew and I needed a getaway. The winter had been cold (considering locale, of course) and we had been home too much over the past few months. But, it's crunch time in the semester with stacks of papers to grade and such, so there was certainly not going to be enough time for us to take an out of town trip-- even a quick one to some place like Myrtle Beach. So, we decided to do something that may sound a little silly, but was well worth our while.

We rented a hotel room in town. After much deliberation, we chose to splurge a little on a whirlpool suite at the Holiday Inn Express. The room was cute; it had a tiny kitchen and living area and a large bedroom with a surprisingly comfy bed. And the whirlpool tub was fantastic.

There were rules involved in all of this. We didn't watch any television, we didn't bring computers, and we absolutely could not run home when we realized we forgot to bring a corkscrew for the wine-- instead we went to the store to buy a cheap one.

The amazing room (did I mention we got a discount because I work at UNCW?) wasn't the only part of the "vacation" though. We also took the time to get dressed up and go out on a date. I've lived in Wilmington for the larger portion of my life, and Andrew has lived her for a few years, so we know a lot of the restaurants around here. We decided to pick a place we never go, and managed to trick ourselves *slightly* into feeling like we were really out of town.

We may even make this a tradition! Hopefully this was enough to get us through the rest of the semester...

DVR and the Value of Commercials

Perhaps my most guilty pleasure is the soap opera, General Hospital. The problem is that I'm not necessarily interested in every story line associated with the show. And some of the characters annoy me. Not to mention, my life doesn't work in such a way that I can be sure to sit down in front of the television set at 3pm (or even 10pm, thanks to Soapnet) to watch. Inevitably, I'd manage to miss the good stuff, and only ever see the most tedious dialogue.

Then we got DVR.

Not only can I watch the show at my convenience, but I can skip the scenes with the characters that bug me, skip the story lines that I could care less about, AND skip commercials. I happen to be very fond of this. However, at the same time, I'm concerned that DVR is yet another perpetuation of the "I want it now" attitude.

Well, yesterday I read an article that touched a bit on the same concern. It explains that commercials can actually enhance our viewing experience. Read it here: "Liked the Show? Maybe it was the Commercials."

The article does point out that depending on the type of show you are watching, interruptions may not be beneficial. I think this also goes for Soap Operas.

On the other hand, I think the article is dead on when it comes to shows like Lost. My boyfriend got me started on this show a while back- but we were watching all the episodes on DVD. While I was interested in what was happening, I found the show to be stressful and a bit difficult to digest. We watched the first 4 seasons on DVD, so that I'd be able to watch it with him on ABC when season 5 started.

I like season 5 the best so far. I have to wonder if this is because I am given these interruptions with commercials. I can grab a glass of wine, or talk about what has just happened during the commercial break. I can also just give my mind a rest by watching the commercials.

In any case, we all know that the way we are entertained is ever changing. It's just a good idea to sit back and think about the effects every once in a while.

delicious!

http://delicious.com/eabissette